As is known in the art, electrical cabinets have been used to house rack-mounted modular chassis for many applications, such as in data storage systems. In one rack-mounted system, a cabinet is provided having a pair of vertically stacked columns of modular chassis separated by a central, vertically extending region. That is, the modular chassis are located in the front and rear of a rack in two vertical columns with the chimney in the center of the rack. The central region serves as a common ventilation chimney for the pair of stacks of chassis. More particularly, fans in the chassis draw air into the front of the chassis to then cool electrical components in the chassis then exit through the rear of the chassis into the common chimney where the air is then directed upwards out of the cabinet. The inventors have discovered that as the number of chassis in the rack increases, with all of these chassis exhausting into the same chimney, immense back pressure can incurred in the lower portions of the chimney thereby impeding effective exhaust for the lower chassis in the rack. The main disadvantage is that the chassis in the lower portion of the rack cannot exhaust their air. This will prevent them from operating at their optimal performance or overheat. This could be overcome by overbuilding the cooling systems. This would be very expensive and would require extra space within the rack.
In accordance with the present invention, a cabinet is provided having a pair of vertically stacked chassis separated by a central, vertically extending region. A pair of laterally spaced, vertically extending panels is disposed in the central region, the panels forming: a pair of outer compartments for receiving air exiting a corresponding one of the pair of laterally spaced vertically stacked chassis; and an inner compartment for receiving air exiting the pair of vertically stacked chassis.
With such an arrangement, the lower chassis are provided with a separate inner compartment for ventilation of the air exiting such lower cabinets; while the upper chassis are provided with the outer compartments for ventilation thereby alleviate backpressure in the central region. The invention equalizes the backpressure that is built up in the central region or chimney. This allows the lower ⅔ of the chassis in the rack to exhaust as easily as the chassis in the top of the rack. This eliminates any need to overbuild the cooling systems and does not require any extra space within the rack.
In one embodiment, the panels have therein an array of openings in a lower portion thereof for passing portions of air in the outer compartments into the inner compartment.
With such an arrangement, the openings provide secondary ducts up the central region that allows various levels of exhaust to bleed into the inner compartment to further alleviate the backpressure.
In one embodiment, an upper portion of the panels inhibits portions of air in the outer compartments from passing into the inner compartment.
In one embodiment, the openings extend in rows horizontally across the panel.
In one embodiment, the number of opening in lower ones of the rows is greater than the number of opening in upper ones of the rows.
In one embodiment, wherein each one of the chassis is disposed on a corresponding one of a plurality of horizontally extending shelves and including a plurality of pivotal flaps, each one of the flaps being disposed in registration with a region of the rear portion of the chassis exiting the air, such flap being biased in a closed position in the absence of such chassis from the shelve and such flap being biased in an open position when such chassis is present on the shelve to enable the air to exit the chassis and the pass through the open flap into the central region.
The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.